Visual Representation of a User Interface

ABSTRACT

A visual representation may be displayed at a computing device to indicate a display configuration and/or user interactions associated with a user interface for an application that may be run on other computing devices. The visual representation of the user interface may be determined based on user interface information, which may be logged at the computing device on which the application may be run. The visual representation of the user interface may include data obtained from a remote data source. The data may include market data that may be obtained from an electronic exchange that is shared with the computing device on which the application may be run for displaying the user interface.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

The present application is a continuation of U.S. patent applicationSer. No. 17/109,992 filed Dec. 2, 2020, which is a continuation of U.S.patent application Ser. No. 14/576,181 filed Dec. 18, 2014, now U.S.Pat. No. 10,887,370, the entire contents of each of which are herewithincorporated by reference into the present application for all purposes.

BACKGROUND

An electronic trading system generally includes a trading device incommunication with an electronic exchange. The trading device receivesinformation about a market, such as prices and quantities, from theelectronic exchange. The electronic exchange receives messages, such asmessages related to orders, from the trading device. The electronicexchange attempts to match quantity of an order with quantity of one ormore contra-side orders.

The trading device may execute an application, such as a tradingapplication, which may provide information and functionality to a uservia a user interface. For example, the user interface may include one ormore application windows, such as trading windows, market information,application functions, such as buttons or text boxes, and/or the like. Auser may configure the information and functionality in the userinterface in a way that is beneficial to the user and store theconfiguration in a user profile, such that the preferred information andfunctionality provided by the user interface can be consistentlyprovided in a configuration preferred by the user.

Knowledge of the user's preferred functions and configurations in theuser interface may be beneficial, such as when developing theapplication and/or providing technical support to a user of theapplication. User-preferred functions and/or configurations in a userinterface may, however, be difficult to determine. Due to the differentuser configurations in the user interface, it may also be difficult toprovide technical support or troubleshooting for a user at the tradingdevice.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES

Certain embodiments are disclosed with reference to the followingdrawings.

FIG. 1 illustrates a block diagram representative of an exampleelectronic trading system in which certain embodiments may be employed.

FIG. 2 illustrates a block diagram of another example electronic tradingsystem in which certain embodiments may be employed.

FIG. 3 illustrates a block diagram of an example computing device whichmay be used to implement the disclosed embodiments.

FIG. 4 illustrates a block diagram of an example system which may beimplemented to display a visual representation of a user interface at acomputing device.

FIG. 5 illustrates a block diagram of an example system which may beemployed with disclosed embodiments.

FIG. 6 illustrates an example method for displaying visualrepresentations of user interfaces at computing devices.

FIG. 7 illustrates an example method for displaying visualrepresentations of display configurations of user interfaces atcomputing devices.

FIG. 8 illustrates an example method for displaying visualrepresentations of user interactions with user interfaces at computingdevices.

FIG. 9 illustrates an example method that may be used to display visualrepresentations of user interfaces at computing devices.

FIGS. 10A-10D depict example visual representations of user interfacesthat may be displayed at a computing device.

FIG. 11 illustrates a block diagram of an example system which may beimplemented to display a visual representation of a user interface at acomputing device.

FIG. 12 illustrates an example method for creating and/or modifyingdisplay configurations of user interfaces.

The embodiments described herein will be better understood when read inconjunction with the provided figures, which illustrate examples. Itshould be understood, however, that the embodiments are not limited tothe arrangements and instrumentality shown in the attached figures.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Embodiments described herein are directed to methods, systems, anddevices for determining and/or displaying visual representations of auser interface displayed at a computing device. A visual representationmay be determined and/or displayed at a computing device, as describedherein. The visual representation may be displayed to indicate a displayconfiguration for a user interface of an application that may be run onother computing devices. The visual representation may be displayed toindicate user interactions with the user interface of the applicationthat may be run on other computing devices. The application may be atrading application that may include a configurable user interface. Thevisual representation may reflect the changes to the configurable userinterface. The user interface may include different trading applicationwindows. Each trading application window may include different marketdata, personal trading information, and/or functions for interactingwith the trading application.

The visual representation of the user interface may be determined basedon user interface information, which may be logged at the computingdevice on which the application may be run. The user interfaceinformation may include display configuration information that mayindicate a display configuration for the user interface. The displayconfiguration information may indicate a location and/or size ofapplication windows or functions displayed in the user interface, forexample. The visual representation may be determined and displayed toindicate the location and/or size of the application windows orfunctions displayed in the user interface.

The user interface information may include user interaction informationthat may indicate user interactions with the user interface. The userinteraction information may indicate a position of the user interactionand/or a number of user interactions at a position or within an area ofthe user interface. The visual representation may use the userinteraction information to indicate the more frequently used portions ofthe user interface and/or the less frequently used portions of the userinterface.

Different levels of information may be displayed in the visualrepresentation. The levels of information may be based on differentpermission levels granted by a user of the application. For example, auser of a trading application may wish to select a permission level thatprevents access to and/or display of market data and/or personalfinancial information that may be displayed at the user interface of atrading application.

The visual representation of the user interface may include dataobtained from a remote data source. The remote data source may be sharedwith the computing device on which the user interface may be displayed.The remote data source may include an electronic exchange, for example,from which a trading device may receive market data that may bedisplayed on the user interface. The remote data source may be indicatedin the user interface information. The visual representation may beinclude the display configuration of the user interface and the datareceived from the remote data source. The display configurationinformation and the data may be received over separate networks or fromseparate sources, which may reduce the demand on a given network.

Although this description discloses embodiments including, among othercomponents, software executed on hardware, the embodiments are merelyillustrative and should not be considered as limiting. For example, itis contemplated that any or all of these hardware and softwarecomponents may be embodied exclusively in hardware, exclusively insoftware, exclusively in firmware, or in any combination of hardware,software, and/or firmware. Accordingly, certain embodiments may beimplemented in other ways.

I. Brief Description of Certain Embodiments

Systems, methods, and apparatus are described herein for displayingvisual representations. As described herein, a computing device mayreceive user interface information associated with an application on asecond computing device. The user interface information may includedisplay configuration information that indicates a display configurationof a user interface on the second computing device. The user interfaceinformation may include user interaction information that indicates auser interaction with the user interface on the second computing device.The user interface information may indicate a remote data source fromwhich data may be displayed in the user interface on the secondcomputing device. The computing device may receive the data from theremote data source indicated in the user interface information. Thecomputing device may generate, based on the user interface informationand the data from the remote data source, a visual representation thatindicates the display configuration of the user interface and/or theuser interaction with the user interface on the second computing device.The computing device may display the visual representation on thedisplay.

The display configuration information may indicate a size of anapplication window associated with the user interface on the secondcomputing device. The visual representation may include a window objectthat corresponds in size to the size of the application window.

The display configuration information may indicate a position of anapplication window associated with the user interface on the secondcomputing device. The visual representation may include a window objectthat corresponds in position to the position of the application window.

The display configuration information may indicate a number ofapplication windows activated by a user of the application on the secondcomputing device over a period of time. The visual representation on thedisplay may identify the number of application windows activated by theuser over the period of time.

The user interaction information may indicate a position of a userselection and/or a number of user selections associated with userinterface on the second computing device over a period of time. Thevisual representation may indicate the position of the user selectionand/or the number of user selections over the period of time.

The visual representation may indicate a plurality of user selectionswithin a predetermined distance from each other using a single indicium.

The computing device may receive user interface information associatedwith a third computing device and may determine the visualrepresentation based on the user interface information associated withthe third computing device.

The computing device may provide a user profile that is based on theuser interface information. The user profile may indicate a predefineddisplay configuration for the application.

The second computing device may be a financial trading device. Theapplication may be a financial trading application. The visualrepresentation may omit market data or personal financial data used bythe financial trading application on the financial trading device.

The computing device may identify, based on the user interactioninformation, at least one portion of the user interface that is usedmore frequently than other portions of the user interface. The computingdevice may determine, based on the identified portion or portions of theuser interface, an application update for the application that modifiesthe display configuration of the user interface. The computing devicemay send the application update to the second computing device.

The visual representation may include a real-time representation of theuser interface associated with the application on the second computingdevice.

The computing device may query a data store for the user interfaceinformation. The computing device may receive the user interfaceinformation in response to the query.

The computing device may receive, from the second computing device, apermission level that indicates a level of information available in thedata store. The computing device may query the data store for the userinterface information based on the permission level.

A server may aggregate user interface information associated with atrading application from a plurality of trading terminals. Theaggregated information may be received at the server in response to arequest, in a consistent stream of information (e.g., such as when achange has occurred at the trading application), at predefined intervalsof time, and/or the like. A computing device may query the aggregateduser interface information to obtain the user interface informationassociated with a trading terminal of the plurality of tradingterminals. The user interface information associated with the tradingterminal may include display configuration information that indicates adisplay configuration of a user interface on the trading terminal. Theuser interface information associated with the trading terminal mayinclude user interaction information that indicates a user interactionwith the user interface on the trading terminal. The user interfaceinformation may indicate a remote data source from which data isdisplayed in the user interface on the trading terminal. The computingdevice may receive the data from the remote data source indicated in theuser interface information. The computing device may determine, based onthe user interface information associated with the trading terminal andthe data received from the remote data source, a visual representationthat indicates the display configuration of the user interface on thetrading terminal and/or the user interaction with the user interface onthe trading terminal.

The computing device may display the visual representation.

The display configuration information may indicate a size of anapplication window associated with the user interface on the tradingterminal. The visual representation may include a window object thatcorresponds in size to the size of the application window.

The display configuration information may indicate a position of anapplication window associated with the user interface on the tradingterminal. The visual representation may include a window object thatcorresponds in position to the position of the application window.

The user interaction information may indicate a position of a userselection and/or a number of user selections associated with the userinterface on the trading terminal over a period of time. The visualrepresentation may indicate the position of the user selection and/orthe number of user selections over the period of time.

The visual representation may omit at least one of market data orpersonal financial data used by the trading application at the tradingterminal.

A computing device may receive display configuration information thatindicates a display configuration of a trading application windowdisplayed on a second computing device. The display configurationinformation may indicate a remote data source from which data may bedisplayed in the trading application window. The computing device mayreceive the data from the remote data source specified in the displayconfiguration information. The computing device may generate a visualrepresentation of the trading application window. The visualrepresentation of the trading application window may be generated basedon the display configuration information and the data from the remotedata source. The computing device may display, via a display, the visualrepresentation of the trading application window. The visualrepresentation may include the display configuration of the tradingapplication window displayed on the second computing device and the datafrom the remote data source.

The data may be received from the remote data source via a data feedthat is shared with the second computing device.

The data feed may be provided via a gateway.

The data feed may be representative of trading activity in a marketoperating at an electronic exchange.

The remote data source may include an electronic exchange. The visualrepresentation may display the same market data from the electronicexchange as the trading application window.

II. Example Electronic Trading System

FIG. 1 illustrates a block diagram representative of an exampleelectronic trading system 100 in which certain embodiments may beemployed. The system 100 includes a trading device 110, a gateway 120,and an exchange 130. The trading device 110 is in communication with thegateway 120. The gateway 120 is in communication with the exchange 130.As used herein, the phrase “in communication with” encompasses directcommunication and/or indirect communication through one or moreintermediary components. The exemplary electronic trading system 100depicted in FIG. 1 may be in communication with additional components,subsystems, and elements to provide additional functionality andcapabilities without departing from the teaching and disclosure providedherein.

In operation, the trading device 110 may receive market data from theexchange 130 through the gateway 120. A user may utilize the tradingdevice 110 to monitor this market data and/or base a decision to send anorder message to buy or sell one or more tradeable objects to theexchange 130.

Market data may include data about a market for a tradeable object. Forexample, market data may include the inside market, market depth, lasttraded price (“LTP”), a last traded quantity (“LTQ”), or a combinationthereof. The inside market refers to the highest available bid price(best bid) and the lowest available ask price (best ask or best offer)in the market for the tradeable object at a particular point in time(since the inside market may vary over time). Market depth refers toquantities available at price levels including the inside market andaway from the inside market. Market depth may have “gaps” due to priceswith no quantity based on orders in the market.

The price levels associated with the inside market and market depth canbe provided as value levels which can encompass prices as well asderived and/or calculated representations of value. For example, valuelevels may be displayed as net change from an opening price. As anotherexample, value levels may be provided as a value calculated from pricesin two other markets. In another example, value levels may includeconsolidated price levels.

A tradeable object is anything which may be traded. For example, acertain quantity of the tradeable object may be bought or sold for aparticular price. A tradeable object may include, for example, financialproducts, stocks, options, bonds, future contracts, currency, warrants,funds derivatives, securities, commodities, swaps, interest rateproducts, index-based products, traded events, goods, or a combinationthereof. A tradeable object may include a product listed and/oradministered by an exchange, a product defined by the user, acombination of real or synthetic products, or a combination thereof.There may be a synthetic tradeable object that corresponds and/or issimilar to a real tradeable object.

An order message is a message that includes a trade order. A trade ordermay be, for example, a command to place an order to buy or sell atradeable object; a command to initiate managing orders according to adefined trading strategy; a command to change, modify, or cancel anorder; an instruction to an electronic exchange relating to an order; ora combination thereof.

The trading device 110 may include one or more electronic computingplatforms. For example, the trading device 110 may include a desktopcomputer, hand-held device, laptop, server, a portable computing device,a trading terminal, an embedded trading system, a workstation, analgorithmic trading system such as a “black box” or “grey box” system,cluster of computers, or a combination thereof. As another example, thetrading device 110 may include a single or multi-core processor incommunication with a memory or other storage medium configured toaccessibly store one or more computer programs, applications, libraries,computer readable instructions, and the like, for execution by theprocessor.

As used herein, the phrases “configured to” and “adapted to” encompassthat an element, structure, or device has been modified, arranged,changed, or varied to perform a specific function or for a specificpurpose.

By way of example, the trading device 110 may be implemented as apersonal computer running a copy of X_TRADER®, an electronic tradingplatform provided by Trading Technologies International, Inc. ofChicago, Ill. (“Trading Technologies”). As another example, the tradingdevice 110 may be a server running a trading application providingautomated trading tools such as ADL®, AUTOSPREADER®, and/or AUTOTRADER™,also provided by Trading Technologies. In yet another example, thetrading device 110 may include a trading terminal in communication witha server, where collectively the trading terminal and the server are thetrading device 110.

The trading device 110 is generally owned, operated, controlled,programmed, configured, or otherwise used by a user. As used herein, thephrase “user” may include, but is not limited to, a human (for example,a trader), trading group (for example, a group of traders), or anelectronic trading device (for example, an algorithmic trading system).One or more users may be involved in the ownership, operation, control,programming, configuration, or other use, for example.

The trading device 110 may include one or more trading applications. Asused herein, a trading application is an application that facilitates orimproves electronic trading. A trading application provides one or moreelectronic trading tools. For example, a trading application stored by atrading device may be executed to arrange and display market data in oneor more trading windows. In another example, a trading application mayinclude an automated spread trading application providing spread tradingtools. In yet another example, a trading application may include analgorithmic trading application that automatically processes analgorithm and performs certain actions, such as placing an order,modifying an existing order, deleting an order. In yet another example,a trading application may provide one or more trading screens. A tradingscreen may provide one or more trading tools that allow interaction withone or more markets. For example, a trading tool may allow a user toobtain and view market data, set order entry parameters, submit ordermessages to an exchange, deploy trading algorithms, and/or monitorpositions while implementing various trading strategies. The electronictrading tools provided by the trading application may always beavailable or may be available only in certain configurations oroperating modes of the trading application.

A trading application may be implemented utilizing computer readableinstructions that are stored in a computer readable medium andexecutable by a processor. A computer readable medium may includevarious types of volatile and non-volatile storage media, including, forexample, random access memory, read-only memory, programmable read-onlymemory, electrically programmable read-only memory, electricallyerasable read-only memory, flash memory, any combination thereof, or anyother tangible data storage device. As used herein, the termnon-transitory or tangible computer readable medium is expressly definedto include any type of computer readable storage media and to excludepropagating signals.

One or more components or modules of a trading application may be loadedinto the computer readable medium of the trading device 110 from anothercomputer readable medium. For example, the trading application (orupdates to the trading application) may be stored by a manufacturer,developer, or publisher on one or more CDs or DVDs, which are thenloaded onto the trading device 110 or to a server from which the tradingdevice 110 retrieves the trading application. As another example, thetrading device 110 may receive the trading application (or updates tothe trading application) from a server, for example, via the Internet oran internal network. The trading device 110 may receive the tradingapplication or updates when requested by the trading device 110 (forexample, “pull distribution”) and/or un-requested by the trading device110 (for example, “push distribution”).

The trading device 110 may be adapted to send order messages. Forexample, the order messages may be sent to through the gateway 120 tothe exchange 130. As another example, the trading device 110 may beadapted to send order messages to a simulated exchange in a simulationenvironment which does not effectuate real-world trades.

The order messages may be sent at the request of a user. For example, atrader may utilize the trading device 110 to send an order message ormanually input one or more parameters for a trade order (for example, anorder price and/or quantity). As another example, an automated tradingtool provided by a trading application may calculate one or moreparameters for a trade order and automatically send the order message.In some instances, an automated trading tool may prepare the ordermessage to be sent but not actually send it without confirmation from auser.

An order message may be sent in one or more data packets or through ashared memory system. For example, an order message may be sent from thetrading device 110 to the exchange 130 through the gateway 120. Thetrading device 110 may communicate with the gateway 120 using a localarea network, a wide area network, a wireless network, a virtual privatenetwork, a cellular network, a peer-to-peer network, a T1 line, a T3line, an integrated services digital network (“ISDN”) line, apoint-of-presence, the Internet, a shared memory system and/or aproprietary network such as TTNET™ provided by Trading Technologies, forexample.

The gateway 120 may include one or more electronic computing platforms.For example, the gateway 120 may be implemented as one or more desktopcomputer, hand-held device, laptop, server, a portable computing device,a trading terminal, an embedded trading system, workstation with asingle or multi-core processor, an algorithmic trading system such as a“black box” or “grey box” system, cluster of computers, or anycombination thereof.

The gateway 120 may facilitate communication. For example, the gateway120 may perform protocol translation for data communicated between thetrading device 110 and the exchange 130. The gateway 120 may process anorder message received from the trading device 110 into a data formatunderstood by the exchange 130, for example. Similarly, the gateway 120may transform market data in an exchange-specific format received fromthe exchange 130 into a format understood by the trading device 110, forexample.

The gateway 120 may include a trading application, similar to thetrading applications discussed above, that facilitates or improveselectronic trading. For example, the gateway 120 may include a tradingapplication that tracks orders from the trading device 110 and updatesthe status of the order based on fill confirmations received from theexchange 130. As another example, the gateway 120 may include a tradingapplication that coalesces market data from the exchange 130 andprovides it to the trading device 110. In yet another example, thegateway 120 may include a trading application that provides riskprocessing, calculates implieds, handles order processing, handlesmarket data processing, or a combination thereof.

In certain embodiments, the gateway 120 communicates with the exchange130 using a local area network, a wide area network, a wireless network,a virtual private network, a cellular network, a peer-to-peer network, aT1 line, a T3 line, an ISDN line, a point-of-presence, the Internet, ashared memory system, and/or a proprietary network such as TTNET™provided by Trading Technologies, for example.

The exchange 130 may be owned, operated, controlled, or used by anexchange entity. Example exchange entities include the CME Group, theLondon International Financial Futures and Options Exchange, theIntercontinental Exchange, and Eurex. The exchange 130 may include anelectronic matching system, such as a computer, server, or othercomputing device, which is adapted to allow tradeable objects, forexample, offered for trading by the exchange, to be bought and sold. Theexchange 130 may include separate entities, some of which list and/oradminister tradeable objects and others which receive and match orders,for example. The exchange 130 may include an electronic communicationnetwork (“ECN”), for example.

The exchange 130 may be an electronic exchange. The exchange 130 isadapted to receive order messages and match contra-side trade orders tobuy and sell tradeable objects. Unmatched trade orders may be listed fortrading by the exchange 130. Once an order to buy or sell a tradeableobject is received and confirmed by the exchange, the order isconsidered to be a working order until it is filled or cancelled. Ifonly a portion of the quantity of the order is matched, then thepartially filled order remains a working order. The trade orders mayinclude trade orders received from the trading device 110 or otherdevices in communication with the exchange 130, for example. Forexample, typically the exchange 130 will be in communication with avariety of other trading devices (which may be similar to trading device110) which also provide trade orders to be matched.

The exchange 130 is adapted to provide market data. Market data may beprovided in one or more messages or data packets or through a sharedmemory system. For example, the exchange 130 may publish a data feed tosubscribing devices, such as the trading device 110 or gateway 120. Thedata feed may include market data.

The system 100 may include additional, different, or fewer components.For example, the system 100 may include multiple trading devices,gateways, and/or exchanges. In another example, the system 100 mayinclude other communication devices, such as middleware, firewalls,hubs, switches, routers, servers, exchange-specific communicationequipment, modems, security managers, and/or encryption/decryptiondevices.

III. Expanded Example Electronic Trading System

FIG. 2 illustrates a block diagram of another example electronic tradingsystem 200 in which certain embodiments may be employed. In thisexample, a trading device 210 may utilize one or more communicationnetworks to communicate with a gateway 220 and exchange 230. Forexample, the trading device 210 utilizes network 202 to communicate withthe gateway 220, and the gateway 220, in turn, utilizes the networks 204and 206 to communicate with the exchange 230. As used herein, a networkfacilitates or enables communication between computing devices such asthe trading device 210, the gateway 220, and the exchange 230.

The following discussion generally focuses on the trading device 210,gateway 220, and the exchange 230. However, the trading device 210 mayalso be connected to and communicate with “n” additional gateways(individually identified as gateways 220 a-220 n, which may be similarto gateway 220) and “n” additional exchanges (individually identified asexchanges 230 a-230 n, which may be similar to exchange 230) by way ofthe network 202 (or other similar networks). Additional networks(individually identified as networks 204 a-204 n and 206 a-206 n, whichmay be similar to networks 204 and 206, respectively) may be utilizedfor communications between the additional gateways and exchanges. Thecommunication between the trading device 210 and each of the additionalexchanges 230 a-230 n need not be the same as the communication betweenthe trading device 210 and exchange 230. Generally, each exchange hasits own preferred techniques and/or formats for communicating with atrading device, a gateway, the user, or another exchange. It should beunderstood that there is not necessarily a one-to-one mapping betweengateways 220 a-220 n and exchanges 230 a-230 n. For example, aparticular gateway may be in communication with more than one exchange.As another example, more than one gateway may be in communication withthe same exchange. Such an arrangement may, for example, allow one ormore trading devices 210 to trade at more than one exchange (and/orprovide redundant connections to multiple exchanges).

Additional trading devices 210 a-210 n, which may be similar to tradingdevice 210, may be connected to one or more of the gateways 220 a-220 nand exchanges 230 a-230 n. For example, the trading device 210 a maycommunicate with the exchange 230 a via the gateway 220 a and thenetworks 202 a, 204 a and 206 a. In another example, the trading device210 b may be in direct communication with exchange 230 a. In anotherexample, trading device 210 c may be in communication with the gateway220 n via an intermediate device 208 such as a proxy, remote host, orWAN router.

The trading device 210, which may be similar to the trading device 110in FIG. 1, includes a server 212 in communication with a tradingterminal 214. The server 212 may be located geographically closer to thegateway 220 than the trading terminal 214 in order to reduce latency. Inoperation, the trading terminal 214 may provide a trading screen to auser and communicate commands to the server 212 for further processing.For example, a trading algorithm may be deployed to the server 212 forexecution based on market data. The server 212 may execute the tradingalgorithm without further input from the user. In another example, theserver 212 may include a trading application providing automated tradingtools and communicate back to the trading terminal 214. The tradingdevice 210 may include additional, different, or fewer components.

In operation, the network 202 may be a multicast network configured toallow the trading device 210 to communicate with the gateway 220. Dataon the network 202 may be logically separated by subject such as, forexample, by prices, orders, or fills. As a result, the server 212 andtrading terminal 214 can subscribe to and receive data such as, forexample, data relating to prices, orders, or fills, depending on theirindividual needs.

The gateway 220, which may be similar to the gateway 120 of FIG. 1, mayinclude a price server 222, order server 224, and fill server 226. Thegateway 220 may include additional, different, or fewer components. Theprice server 222 may process price data. Price data includes datarelated to a market for one or more tradeable objects. The order server224 processes order data. Order data is data related to a user's tradeorders. For example, order data may include order messages, confirmationmessages, or other types of messages. The fill server collects andprovides fill data. Fill data includes data relating to one or morefills of trade orders. For example, the fill server 226 may provide arecord of trade orders, which have been routed through the order server224, that have and have not been filled. The servers 222, 224, and 226may run on the same machine or separate machines. There may be more thanone instance of the price server 222, the order server 224, and/or thefill server 226 for gateway 220. In certain embodiments, the additionalgateways 220 a-220 n may each includes instances of the servers 222,224, and 226 (individually identified as servers 222 a-222 n, 224 a-224n, and 226 a-226 n).

The gateway 220 may communicate with the exchange 230 using one or morecommunication networks. For example, as shown in FIG. 2, there may betwo communication networks connecting the gateway 220 and the exchange230. The network 204 may be used to communicate market data to the priceserver 222. In some instances, the exchange 230 may include this data ina data feed that is published to subscribing devices. The network 206may be used to communicate order data to the order server 224 and thefill server 226. The network 206 may also be used to communicate orderdata from the order server 224 to the exchange 230.

The exchange 230, which may be similar to the exchange 130 of FIG. 1,includes an order book 232 and a matching engine 234. The exchange 230may include additional, different, or fewer components. The order book232 is a database that includes data relating to unmatched trade ordersthat have been submitted to the exchange 230. For example, the orderbook 232 may include data relating to a market for a tradeable object,such as the inside market, market depth at various price levels, thelast traded price, and the last traded quantity. The matching engine 234may match contra-side bids and offers pending in the order book 232. Forexample, the matching engine 234 may execute one or more matchingalgorithms that match contra-side bids and offers. A sell order iscontra-side to a buy order. Similarly, a buy order is contra-side to asell order. A matching algorithm may match contra-side bids and offersat the same price, for example. In certain embodiments, the additionalexchanges 230 a-230 n may each include order books and matching engines(individually identified as the order book 232 a-232 n and the matchingengine 234 a-234 n, which may be similar to the order book 232 and thematching engine 234, respectively). Different exchanges may usedifferent data structures and algorithms for tracking data related toorders and matching orders.

In operation, the exchange 230 may provide price data from the orderbook 232 to the price server 222 and order data and/or fill data fromthe matching engine 234 to the order server 224 and/or the fill server226. Servers 222, 224, 226 may process and communicate this data to thetrading device 210. The trading device 210, for example, using a tradingapplication, may process this data. For example, the data may bedisplayed to a user. In another example, the data may be utilized in atrading algorithm to determine whether a trade order should be submittedto the exchange 230. The trading device 210 may prepare and send anorder message to the exchange 230.

In certain embodiments, the gateway 220 is part of the trading device210. For example, the components of the gateway 220 may be part of thesame computing platform as the trading device 210. As another example,the functionality of the gateway 220 may be performed by components ofthe trading device 210. In certain embodiments, the gateway 220 is notpresent. Such an arrangement may occur when the trading device 210 doesnot need to utilize the gateway 220 to communicate with the exchange230, such as if the trading device 210 has been adapted to communicatedirectly with the exchange 230.

IV. Example Computing Device

FIG. 3 illustrates a block diagram of an example computing device 300which may be used to implement the disclosed embodiments. The tradingdevice 110 of FIG. 1 may include one or more computing devices 300, forexample. The gateway 120 of FIG. 1 may include one or more computingdevices 300, for example. The exchange 130 of FIG. 1 may include one ormore computing devices 300, for example.

The computing device 300 includes a communication network 310, aprocessor 312, a memory 314, an interface 316, an input device 318, andan output device 320. The computing device 300 may include additional,different, or fewer components. For example, multiple communicationnetworks, multiple processors, multiple memory, multiple interfaces,multiple input devices, multiple output devices, or any combinationthereof, may be provided. As another example, the computing device 300may not include an input device 318 or output device 320.

As shown in FIG. 3, the computing device 300 may include a processor 312coupled to a communication network 310. The communication network 310may include a communication bus, channel, electrical or optical network,circuit, switch, fabric, or other mechanism for communicating databetween components in the computing device 300. The communicationnetwork 310 may be communicatively coupled with and transfer databetween any of the components of the computing device 300.

The processor 312 may be any suitable processor, processing unit, ormicroprocessor. The processor 312 may include one or more generalprocessors, digital signal processors, application specific integratedcircuits, field programmable gate arrays, analog circuits, digitalcircuits, programmed processors, and/or combinations thereof, forexample. The processor 312 may be a single device or a combination ofdevices, such as one or more devices associated with a network ordistributed processing. Any processing strategy may be used, such asmulti-processing, multi-tasking, parallel processing, and/or remoteprocessing. Processing may be local or remote and may be moved from oneprocessor to another processor. In certain embodiments, the computingdevice 300 is a multi-processor system and, thus, may include one ormore additional processors which are communicatively coupled to thecommunication network 310.

The processor 312 may be operable to execute logic and other computerreadable instructions encoded in one or more tangible media, such as thememory 314. As used herein, logic encoded in one or more tangible mediaincludes instructions which may be executable by the processor 312 or adifferent processor. The logic may be stored as part of software,hardware, integrated circuits, firmware, and/or micro-code, for example.The logic may be received from an external communication device via acommunication network such as the network 340. The processor 312 mayexecute the logic to perform the functions, acts, or tasks illustratedin the figures or described herein.

The memory 314 may be one or more tangible media, such as computerreadable storage media, for example. Computer readable storage media mayinclude various types of volatile and non-volatile storage media,including, for example, random access memory, read-only memory,programmable read-only memory, electrically programmable read-onlymemory, electrically erasable read-only memory, flash memory, anycombination thereof, or any other tangible data storage device. As usedherein, the term non-transitory or tangible computer readable medium isexpressly defined to include any type of computer readable medium and toexclude propagating signals. The memory 314 may include any desired typeof mass storage device including hard disk drives, optical media,magnetic tape or disk, etc.

The memory 314 may include one or more memory devices. For example, thememory 314 may include local memory, a mass storage device, volatilememory, non-volatile memory, or a combination thereof. The memory 314may be adjacent to, part of, programmed with, networked with, and/orremote from processor 312, so the data stored in the memory 314 may beretrieved and processed by the processor 312, for example. The memory314 may store instructions which are executable by the processor 312.The instructions may be executed to perform one or more of the acts orfunctions described herein or shown in the figures.

The memory 314 may store a trading application 330. In certainembodiments, the trading application 330 may be accessed from or storedin different locations. The processor 312 may access the tradingapplication 330 stored in the memory 314 and execute computer-readableinstructions included in the trading application 330.

In certain embodiments, during an installation process, the tradingapplication may be transferred from the input device 318 and/or thenetwork 340 to the memory 314. When the computing device 300 is runningor preparing to run the trading application 330, the processor 312 mayretrieve the instructions from the memory 314 via the communicationnetwork 310.

V. Visual Representations of a User Interface

FIG. 4 illustrates an example system 400 for displaying a visualrepresentation of a user interface at a computing device. The system 400may include a computing device 402 and a computing device 406 that maycommunicate with each other directly or via the network 404. Thecomputing device 402 may be a trading device, such as trading device210, or a portion thereof, such as the trading terminal 214 or theserver 212, for example. In another example, the server 212 may beincluded in the network 404. The computing device 406 may be a tradingdevice or another computing device that may communicate with thecomputing device 402 to access information.

The computing device 402 may run one or more applications that mayprovide a user interface 408 for displaying information to and/orreceiving information from a user. The user interface 408 may beconfigurable. The user interface 408 may include one or moreconfigurable windows 412. The windows 412 may be trading applicationwindows that may display market data via the user interface 408. Thenumber of windows 412, the size of the windows 412, and/or the positionof the windows 412 may be configurable by a user. For example, theposition of the window 412 may be specified by Cartesian coordinatescorresponding to the upper left hand corner of the window, and the sizeof the window may be specified relative to those coordinates. Theinformation in the windows 412 may be configurable. For example, thewindows 412 may include data from a remote source, buttons, or otherfunctions, the size and/or position of which may be configurable by theuser. The windows 412 may further include any user-specified orconfigurable options such as a default price, a default quantity as wellas any interface or application settings. The example user-specifiedsettings associated with the window 412 provide a means and informationby which the user interface 408 can be reconstituted and/orreconstructed at a remote location.

User interface information that indicates a display configuration of theuser interface 408 and/or user interactions with the user interface 408may be logged and/or stored at the computing device 402. The userinterface information may be transmitted to the computing device 406.The computing device 406 may provide a visual representation 410 basedon the user interface information that indicates the displayconfiguration of the user interface 408 and/or user interactions withthe user interface 408. For example, the computing device 406 mayutilize the size and location of the windows 412 at the user interface408 from the user interface information and may generate windows 414 inthe visual representation 410, which may indicate the size and locationof the windows 412. While the size and location of the windows 412 inthe user interface 408 are provided as example types of information thatmay be logged at the computing device 402 and/or indicated at thecomputing device 406, other types of information are also describedherein. In particular, the user configurable data describing thearrangement and/or set-up of the user interface 408 and/or the window412 may be provided or accessed by the computing device 406 in order toreconstruct the configuration into the visual representation 410. Thevisual representation 410 may be used to determine a displayconfiguration of the user interface at the computing device 402 or totroubleshoot problems at the computing device 402. The problems may bedetected based on the visual representation 410. The visualrepresentation 410 may be shared with other computing devices, such asthe computing device 402, via the network 404.

FIG. 5 illustrates an example system 500 for displaying a visualrepresentation of a user interface at a computing device. The system 500may be used to display a visual representation of the user interfacedisplayed at the trading device 210, for example. The system 500 mayinclude user interface (UI) information loggers 502, an aggregator 504,a data store 506, a data requester 508, a visual representationdeterminer 510, and/or a display 512. One or more portions of the system500 may be implemented as hardware and/or software at a computingdevice. The portions of the system 500 that reside in software may bestored in memory and/or executed by the processor of one or morecomputing devices. For example, the UI information logger 502, theaggregator 504 and/or the data store 506 may be implemented at thetrading terminal 214 and/or the server 212 to gather and store userinterface information that may be displayed at the trading terminal 214.The data requestor 508, the visual representation determiner 510, and/orthe display 512 may be implemented by the server 212 and/or anothercomputing device, such as the computing device 406 shown in FIG. 4 forexample, to determine and/or display a visual representation of the userinterface displayed at the trading terminal 214.

The UI information logger 502 may log user interface information for anapplication that may be running at a computing device, such as thetrading device 210, for example. The user interface information mayinclude display configuration information that indicates a displayconfiguration of the user interface of the application running on thecomputing device. The user interface information may include userinteraction information that indicates user interactions with the userinterface of the application running on the computing device. Thedisplay configuration information may include a user profile for thedisplay configuration, the number of application windows displayed inthe user interface, the size of application windows displayed in theuser interface, the position of application windows displayed in theuser interface, the title of application windows displayed in the userinterface, the number of application functions displayed in anapplication window for controlling the functionality of the application,the position of the application functions displayed in an applicationwindow, the size of the application functions displayed in anapplication window, the name of the application functions displayed inan application window, and/or the like. An application function may be abutton, a text box, or other controllable object on the user interfacethat may allow a user to interact with the application. The UIinformation logger 502 may record a time at which the user interfaceinformation is logged.

Different display configurations for the user interface may be providedby the application for different user profiles. The user interfaces fordifferent user profiles may display different application windows,application window sizes, application window positions, applicationfunctions, positions of application functions, sizes of the applicationfunctions, and/or the like. When a user selects a user profile at acomputing device, the user may be presented with a predefined displayconfiguration for the user interface. The user may choose to modify thedisplay configuration and the UI information logger 502 may log the userinterface information that indicates the modified display configuration.The user interface information may be used to create and/or modify theuser profiles, as further described herein.

The UI information logger 502 may log user interactions with anapplication via the user interface. The UI information logger 502 maylog a position of the user interaction and/or a number of userinteractions at a position or within an area of the user interface. TheUI information logger 502 may log user interface information thatindicates the more frequently used application functions, the lessfrequently used application functions, and/or application functions thatare not used. The UI information logger 502 may log the user interfaceinformation in a UI information log. The UI information log may bestored in memory.

The UI information logger 502 may log the user interface informationperiodically. For example, the user interface information may be loggedonce a week, once a day, once an hour, once a minute, and/or the like.The periodicity of the logging of the information at the UI informationlogger may be configurable, for example, by a user of the computingdevice logging the user interface information. The UI information logger502 may log the user interface information upon receiving a userinteraction with the user interface. For example, the UI informationlogger 502 may log the user interface information upon determining amodification of the display configuration or a user selection, such as achange in the number of application windows being displayed, a change inthe size of an application window, a change in the position of anapplication window, a selection of an application function, a change inthe position of an application function, a change in the size of anapplication function, and/or another type of user interaction with theuser interface. The UI information logger 502 may log the user interfaceinformation upon receiving a request from a computing device, such as arequest from the computing device 402, the computing device 406, oranother computing device.

The user interface information from one or more computing devices may besent to the aggregator 504. For example, the trading devices 210, 210 a,210 b, and/or 210 c may send logged user interface information to theaggregator 504. The aggregator 504 may receive the aggregatedinformation in response to a request from the trading devices, in aconsistent stream of information (e.g., such as when a change hasoccurred to the user interface at the trading devices), at predefinedintervals of time, and/or the like. The aggregator 504 may aggregate theuser interface information for each trading device 210, 210 a, 210 b,210 c, such that similar types of user interface information may belogged from different devices and/or from different times. Theaggregator 504 may be implemented using proprietary software, such asSPLUNK® data analytics software, for example. The aggregator 504 maystore the aggregated user interface information in the data store 506.

The data store 506 may include a relational database, an extensiblemarkup language (XML) database, or another type of database. The datastore 506 may receive a request for information and return informationin response to the request. The request may be in the form of a query,such as a structured query language (SQL) query, for example. The datastore 506 may encrypt the stored user interface information. The datastore 506 may include cloud storage that may be distributed over one ormore computing devices.

The data requester 508 may request information from the data store 506.The data requester 508 may request user interface information associatedwith a particular computing device and/or a particular session in whichthe computing device was running the application. For example, the datarequestor 508 may use a computing device identifier and/or a sessionidentifier to request the user interface information, or portionsthereof, for the identified computing device and/or during theidentified session during which the application is run.

The visual representation determiner 510 may use the user interfaceinformation to generate a visual representation of one or more portionsof the user interface for the application that may be run on a computingdevice, such as the trading device 210, for example. The visualrepresentation may indicate a display configuration associated with anapplication on the other computing device. The visual representation mayindicate one or more user interactions associated with an application onthe other computing device. For example, the visual representation mayindicate user interactions with the user interface for a tradingapplication on the trading device 210. The visual representationdeterminer 510 may receive the user interface information from the datastore 506 via the data requestor 508 or directly from the aggregator504. In certain embodiments, the visual representation determiner 510can receive an aggregated set of user interface information depictingand/or detailing the changes in the user information over a period oftime. For example, a set of aggregated user information can becommunicated to the computing device 406 allowing for a replay of theaggregated information at the computing device 406. In this way, a usermay replay and see any changes and/or activity occurring at the userinterface 408 and/or the window 412 during the aggregation period.

The visual representation determiner 510 may determine a visualrepresentation that identifies a display configuration and/or userinteractions with the user interface for the application running at acomputer device. The visual representation may include one or morewindow objects that may correspond with an application window displayedon the user interface for the trading application on the trading device210. The window object may be rectangular in shape and may have anobject size that is proportional to the size of the correspondingtrading application window at the trading device 210. For example, aheight-to-width ratio of the window object may be the same as aheight-to-width ratio of the corresponding trading application window.Within the visual representation, the window object may positioned at aposition that corresponds with the position of the corresponding tradingapplication window on the trading device 210. For example, therectangular object may be positioned in the center when thecorresponding trading application window is positioned in the center ofthe user interface at the trading device 210. The size, shape, and/orposition of the window object may be determined based on the userinterface information logged by the UI information logger 502.

The visual representation determiner 510 may include text in the visualrepresentation. The text may include a title of the correspondingapplication window, a title of functions in the application window,and/or data, e.g., market data, that may be displayed in the applicationwindow. The visual representation determiner 510 may position the textat a position, within the visual representation, that corresponds with aposition of the text in the corresponding application window of the userinterface. For example, the visual representation determiner 510 mayposition the title of an application window in the top left corner ofthe window object when the title is positioned in the top left corner ofthe application window of the user interface. The size, position, and/orfont type of the text may be determined based on the user interfaceinformation logged by the UI information logger 502.

The visual representation determiner 510 may include indicia in thevisual representation to indicate user interactions with the userinterface on a computing device. For example, the visual representationdeterminer 510 may include indicia in the visual representation toindicate user interaction with the trading application running on thetrading device 210. The visual representation determiner 510 mayposition the indicia, within the visual representation, at a positionthat corresponds with a position of a user interaction with the userinterface at the trading device 210.

The visual representation determiner 510 may represent multiple userinteractions within a predefined area using a single indicium. Forexample, the indicium may increase in size based on the number of userinteractions with the user interface at a corresponding position orwithin a corresponding area of the user interface on the trading device210. For example, indicia that represents two user selections within apredefined area of one another may be twice the size of indicia thatrepresents a single user selection within the same predefined area. Theindicia may also, or alternatively, represent user selections within apredefined position in the visual display. For example, the indicia mayindicate user-selections in different quarters of the visual display.

The visual representation determiner 510 may include different indiciato indicate user interactions on different computing devices and/ordifferent sessions for running the application. For example, differentindicia may be used to identify user interactions at trading device 210and trading device 210 a shown in FIG. 2. Different indicia may also, oralternatively, be used to identify user interactions during differentsessions the trading application may be run at trading device 210. Thesize, shape, and/or position of each indicium of user interaction withthe user interface may be determined based on the user interfaceinformation logged by the UI information logger 502.

The computing device from which the user interface information is loggedand the computing device on which the visual representation is beingdetermined may each access data from a common source. For example, thecomputing device on which the visual representation determiner 510resides may be subscribed to receive market data from the same exchangesas the trading device from which the user interface information islogged to create the visual representation. The visual representationdeterminer 510 may include market data from an exchange in the visualrepresentation so that the visual representation resembles or mirrorsthe user interface associated with the trading application at thetrading device. The visual representation determiner 510 havingindependent access to the same exchanges as the trading devices mayallow the visual representation determiner to generate a visualrepresentation of the user interface at the trading devices, includingthe market data being displayed, based on the user interface informationfor each trading device and the market data received from the exchange.

The visual representation determiner 510 may create a directrepresentation of the user interface on another computing device. Thevisual representation determiner 510 may access locally storedinformation that may indicate a predefined display configuration for theuser interface that may be executed by an application at the othercomputing device. For example, the locally stored information mayindicate the types of windows and/or functions that may be displayed inthe user interface, the locations of the windows and/or functions, etc.The visual representation determiner 510 may use the user interfaceinformation to identify the display configuration of the user interfaceat the other computing device, such as changes in window and/or functionlocations, changes in window and/or function size, etc. The visualrepresentation determiner 510 may use the data from the common datasource to represent the data displayed at the other computing device.The visual representation may directly represent the user interface at amoment in time or in real-time.

The visual representation may be determined for an instant in time orover a period of time. The visual representation may be a real-timerepresentation of the user interface on the trading device, which mayallow the visual representation determiner 510 to generate a real-timevisual representation of the user interface at trading devices withoutreceiving a video feed of the user interface at the trading devices. Thevisual representation may be created for different times in which theuser interface was displayed. For example, the visual representation maybe created for a time in which the user did not recognize a problem withthe application displaying the user interface and a time in which theuser recognized a problem with the application displaying the userinterface to compare the display configuration at two different times todetermine a problem that may have occurred with the application.

The visual representation may be displayed on the display 512. Thedisplay 512 may be an example of an output device for a computingdevice. The display 512 may receive the visual representation from thevisual representation determiner 510 and may display the visualrepresentation. The display 512 may display the visual representation inresponse to a request, such as a request from a user of a computingdevice, for example.

FIG. 6 illustrates a method 600 that may be used to display visualrepresentations of user interfaces at computing devices. At 610, userinterface information may be logged for an application running oncomputing devices. For example, each trading device may log the userinterface information for the trading application running on the tradingdevice. At 620, the user interface information from each of thecomputing devices may be aggregated. Aggregation may occur locally at,for example, the computing device 402. Alternatively, the user interfaceinformation may be communicated to, for example, a SPLUNK® server orother aggregation repository. The user interface information may becommunicated as part of a batch process, in response to a detectedchange at the computing device, and/or in response to a request for anupdate. The aggregated information may be logged upon a change in theuser interface and/or upon request. The aggregated user interfaceinformation may be stored in a searchable format that may allow forretrieval of the user interface information for a computing device orsession of the computing device in which the application is run.

At 630, the aggregated user interface information may be queried toobtain the user interface information for an identified computing deviceand/or session in which application was run. The query may include oneor more computing device identifier and/or session identifier. The queryresponse may provide the user interface information for the identifiedcomputing device and/or session. Each query may include one or morecomputing device identifiers and/or session identifiers. The query mayinclude identified user interface information, such as certain displayconfiguration information and/or user interaction information, and thequery response may include the identified user interface information.The query may include an identified time at which the user interfaceinformation was logged and the query response may provide the userinterface information for the identified time.

A visual representation of the selected user interface information maybe determined at 640 and the visual representation may be displayed at650. The visual representation may be determined based on the userinterface information from a computing device and/or information from adata source that is shared with the computing device. For example, thecomputing device on which the visual representation is determined may besubscribed to receive market data from the same exchanges as the tradingdevice from which the user interface information is logged to create thevisual representation.

The method 600 may be used to determine and/or display a visualrepresentation of the user interface at a computing device at an instantin time or over a period of time. The visual representation may bedetermined and/or displayed based on a query that may retrieve userinterface information at an instant in time. At 630, the aggregated userinterface information may continue to be queried to receive updated userinterface information, or the user interface information may be pushedto the computing device when a change or user interaction occurs. Thequery, at 630, may also, or alternatively, indicate a period of time forsending user interface information to the computing device fordetermining the visual representation, at 640. The user interfaceinformation received over the period of time may be used to determineand/or display a visual representation of the user interface over theperiod of time. For example, the query may retrieve real-time userinterface information for determining and/or displaying a real-timevisual representation of the user interface. As the user interfaceinformation and/or information from a common data source, such as marketdata for example, may be received by the computing device over a periodof time, the visual representation determined and displayed by thecomputing device may appear to be a video of the user interface withoutthe higher data rates that may be associated with transmitting videodata.

FIG. 7 illustrates a method 700 that may be used to display visualrepresentations that include display configurations of user interfacesat computing devices. At 710, display configuration information may bereceived at a computing device. The display configuration informationmay be received in response to a query that requests the displayconfiguration information. The display configuration information mayindicate a configuration of one or more application windows displayed ina user interface on another computing device. For example, the displayconfiguration information may indicate a configuration of tradingwindows for a trading application on a trading device. The displayconfiguration information may include a size, a position, and/oridentifier of each application window in the user interface.

At 720, a size and/or a position of the application windows may bedetermined based on the display configuration information. A visualrepresentation of the application windows may be determined at 730. Thevisual representation may identify the size and/or the position of theapplication windows displayed on the user interface at the othercomputing device. For example, the visual representation may include arectangle for each application window at the user interface that has asize and position that is proportional to the size and position of thecorresponding application window in the user interface. The visualrepresentation may be displayed at 740 to indicate the size and/orposition of the application windows displayed at the user interface. Thevisual representation displayed at 740 may indicate a displayconfiguration for the user interface without showing data beingdisplayed in the user interface, such as market data or personalfinancial data, for example. The market data or personal financial datamay be omitted from the visual display to protect a user's privacy.

FIG. 8 illustrates a method 800 that may be used to display visualrepresentations of user interactions with a user interface at computingdevices. At 810, user interaction information may be received at acomputing device. The user interaction information may indicate a userselection or other interaction with the application via the userinterface at another computing device. For example, the user interactioninformation may indicate a user selection or other interaction with theapplication via the user interface at another computing device. Forexample, the user interaction information may indicate a user selectionof a button in an application window, a user selection in a text box inan application window, a user selection of an application window, a userselection of a user profile, and/or any other user interaction with theuser interface at another computing device. The user interactioninformation may also indicate user interactions in the user interface atdifferent computing devices, for example, by associating a computingdevice identifier with the user interactions at each computing device.The user interaction information may be received in response to a querythat requests the user interaction information. The user interactioninformation may indicate a position of user interactions. The number ofinteractions within a predefined area or distance from one another mayalso be indicated in the user interaction information, or may beotherwise determined from the position of each user interaction.

Based on the user interaction information, a position and/or a number ofuser interactions with the user interface at each computing device maybe determined, at 820. Additional user interaction information relatedto the setup and/or configuration of the user interface 408 may beutilized by the method 800. At 830, a visual representation may bedetermined that indicates the user interactions within the userinterface. The visual representation may indicate the position of a userinteraction, for example, by displaying an indicia at a position in thevisual representation that corresponds to the relative position of theuser interaction within the user interface. The visual representationmay indicate multiple user interactions within a predefined area using asingle indicium. For example, when two user interactions with the userinterface are determined to be within a predefined distance of oneanother or within a predefined area of the visual representation, thevisual representation may indicate the user interactions with a singleindicium. The indicium may increase in size based on the number of userinteractions represented by the indicium. The visual representation mayalso, or alternatively, identify the actual number of user interactionsrepresented by the indicium. The visual representation may includedifferent indicia in the visual representation to indicate userinteractions on different computing devices and/or during differentsessions of the application. The visual representation may be displayedat 840.

FIG. 9 illustrates a method 900 that may be used to display visualrepresentations of user interfaces at computing devices. At 910, userinterface information may be received at a computing device. The userinterface information may be received in response to a query, forexample. The user interface information may include displayconfiguration information and/or user interaction information for anapplication that may be run on another computing device. The displayconfiguration information may identify a size, location, and/or font fordisplaying data within the user interface. At, 920, the computing devicemay receive the data from a remote source. The remote data source may bea common source with the computing device on which the user interfacemay be displayed.

The data received from the remote source may include market data from anexchange that may also be received at another computing device, such asa trading device, for example. The market data may be received via acommon gateway that has the same data feed from the exchange. The marketdata on the data feed may be representative of trading activity in amarket operating at the exchange.

The user interface information received at 910 may indicate the remotedata source from which to receive the data at 920. For example, thedisplay configuration information and/or the user interactioninformation may indicate the remote data source from which market datamay be displayed in a trading application window. The user interfaceinformation may indicate an exchange and/or gateway from which themarket data was received. The user interface information may indicate atype of market data displayed in the user interface, a time at which themarket data was received or displayed in the user interface, and/or anapplication window in which the market data was displayed. The marketdata may be requested from the remote data source and may be received,at 920, in response to the request. The request may be sent to theexchange and/or gateway identified in the user interface information.The request may indicate the type of market data displayed in the userinterface information and/or the market data from the time indicated inthe user interface information.

The computing device may determine a visual representation based on theuser interface information and the data from the remote data source, at930. The visual representation may indicate a display configuration forthe user interface. For example, the visual representation may indicatethe number of application windows displayed in the user interface, thesize of application windows displayed in the user interface, theposition of application windows displayed in the user interface, thetitle of application windows displayed in the user interface, the numberof application functions displayed in an application window forcontrolling the functionality of the application, the position of theapplication functions displayed in an application window, the size ofthe application functions displayed in an application window, the nameof the application functions displayed in an application window, and/orthe like. The visual representation may also include the data receivedfrom the remote source at 920. The size, location, and/or font typeindicated in the user interface information for the data may be used todetermine the size, location, and/or font type for the data in thevisual representation. The visual representation may be displayed at930.

FIGS. 10A-10D depict example visual representations of user interfacesthat may be displayed at a computing device. FIG. 10A depicts an examplevisual representation 1000. The visual representation 1000 may includewindow objects 1002, 1004, 1006, 1008, 1010 that correspond withapplication windows displayed at a user interface of another computingdevice. The visual representation 1000 may include a computing deviceidentifier 1012. The computing device identifier 1012 may identify acomputing device from which the user interface information was logged.The visual representation 1000 may include a session identifier 1014.The session identifier 1014 may identify a particular session in whichthe user interface information was logged at the computing device. Forexample, the session identifier 1014 may identify a session that mayhave a time duration of one day, one hour, one minute, or the like.

The visual representation 1000 may indicate user interactions bydisplaying user interaction indicia 1016, 1018. A position of the userinteraction indicia 1016, 1018 may correspond with a position of a userinteraction within the user interface. The user interaction indicia1016, 1018 may indicate the portions of the user interface that may beused more frequently. The visual representation 1000 may indicate anincreased number of user interactions at a given position within theuser interface by increasing the size of the user interaction indicia1016, 1018 and/or providing the actual number of user interactionsrepresented by the user interaction indicia 1016, 1018 (not shown).

As shown in FIG. 10A, the user interaction indicia 1016 may be greaterin size than the user interaction indicium 1018, which may indicate thatthere were relatively more user interactions with the user interfacewhere the user interaction indicium 1016 is positioned. The userinteraction indicium 1016 may be a collective identifier for a pluralityof user interactions within a predetermined distance from each other.For example, user interactions within a 10×10 pixels area may berepresented by a collective identifier such as the user interactionindicia 1016. As illustrated, the visual representation 1000 may notexpose any data that may be private or otherwise sensitive to the user,such as market data, personal financial information, or other personaluser information, for example.

As illustrated in FIG. 10B, the visual representation 1000 may includeadditional, or alternative, information. The visual representation 1000may include text 1022 in one or more application windows. The text mayrepresent titles of application windows, such as titles of tradingwindows associated with a trading application, for example. The text mayindicate market data, such as the name of an exchange. The text mayidentify other portions of the application windows.

The visual representation 1000 may indicate the position and/or size offunctions that may allow a user to interact with the application. Forexample, the visual representation 1000 may indicate the location and/orsize of a buy button 1022 to initiate a transaction to purchase acontract, a sell button 1024 to initiate a transaction to sell acontract, preset quantity buttons 1026, 1028 for selecting a tradingquantity within a window, a text box 1030 for entering text or values ina window, and/or other functions that may be included in the userinterface. As shown in FIG. 10B, the market data and/or personal tradinginformation, such as the order information for example, may be preventedfrom being displayed in the visual representation 1000. The orderinformation may include the order gateway, the order type, the pricelimit, the order price, the order quantity, the sell price, and/or thesell quantity for a transaction. The market data may include an askprice, a bid price, and/or an available quantity for a contract type.

As depicted in FIG. 10C, the visual representation 1000 may displayconfiguration information and/or user interaction information for morethan one computing device and/or session. The visual representation 1000may include different types of user interaction indicia 1032, 1034. Theuser interaction indicia 1038 and the user interaction indicia 1034 mayindicate different computing devices and/or different sessions forrunning the application. The user interaction indicia may indicatedifferent display configurations and/or user interactions at differentcomputing devices, such as the application windows that may be displayedor used at a computing device, the configuration of the applicationwindows that may be displayed or used at a computing device, thefunctions displayed or used at a computing device, and/or the like. Thevisual representation 1000 may include additional types of userinteraction indicia to indicate user interactions associated withadditional computing devices.

The different indicia for different computing devices may identifydifferent portions of the user interface that may be used by differentusers. For example, the user interaction indicia 1034 in the visualrepresentation 1000 indicates that the user of the computing devicehaving the computing device identifier BBBB used the text boxes 1030 toenter quantity information in window 1010 during a session, while theuser of the computing device having the computing device identifier AAAAused the preset quantity buttons 1026 to enter quantity information inwindow 1010 during a session.

As illustrated in FIG. 10D, the visual representation 1000 may displaymarket data 1040 and/or personal trading information, such as a user'sorder information for example. The market data may be received from anexchange. The visual representation 1000 depicted in FIG. 10D may besimilar or identical to the user interface of a trading application at acomputing device. The visual representation 1000 may display market dataand/or personal trading information at an instant in time or over aduration of time. The visual representation 1000 may display the marketdata that was current at the identified time the user interfaceinformation was logged and/or the time of the session identified by thesession identifier 1014.

As illustrated in FIGS. 10A-10D, the visual representation 1000 mayinclude different levels of information. The different levels ofinformation may allow creation of as information rich of arepresentation as the user may desire or allow. Each level ofinformation may be logged, accessed by a computing device, and/ordisplayed in the visual representation 1000 based on a permission level.The permission level may be granted by a user of the application forwhich the visual representation is being displayed. For example, theuser of each trading device may grant a permission level for the levelof information allowed to be logged, accessed by a computing device,and/or displayed in the visual representation 1000. Each level may allowincrementally more information from the user interface to be logged,accessed by a computing device, and/or displayed in the visualrepresentation 1000. A user may approve a permission level in real-timeto allow the visual representation to be determined and/or displayed.The real-time approval of the permission level may allow a user torestrict access to the user's user interface information, market dataaccessed by the user, and/or personal financial information duringcertain times and allow access to user interface information, marketdata, and/or personal financial information during other times, such asduring real-time troubleshooting of problems with the user interface atthe user's computing device, for example.

FIG. 11 illustrates an example system 1100 for displaying a visualrepresentation of a user interface at a computing device. The system1100 may include a computing device 1102 and a computing device 1106that may communicate with each other directly or via the network 1104.The computing device 1102 may be a trading device, such as tradingdevice 210 illustrated in FIG. 2, or a portion thereof, such as thetrading terminal 214 or the server 212, for example. The computingdevice 1106 may be a trading device or another computing device that maycommunicate with the computing device 1102 to access information.

The computing device 1102 may run one or more applications that mayprovide a user interface 1110 for displaying information to and/orreceiving information from a user. The user interface 1110 may includeone or more configurable windows and/or functions. The windows may betrading application windows that may display market data via the userinterface 1110. The data that is displayed in the user interface 110 maybe received from a data source 1108. For example, the data may includemarket data that is received via a subscription from the data source1108, which may be an electronic exchange or a gateway that may haveaccess to the electronic exchange.

User interface information, such as display configuration informationand/or user interaction information, may be logged at the computingdevice 1102 and may be sent to the computing device 1106 directly or viathe network 1104. Based on the user interface information, the computingdevice 1106 may generate a visual representation 1112 that replicatesone or more portions of the user interface 1110. For example, thecomputing device 1106 may determine the size and location of the windowsat the user interface 1110 from the user interface information and maygenerate windows in the visual representation 1112, which may replicatethe size and location of the windows in the user interface 1110. Whilethe size and location of the windows in the user interface 1112 areprovided as example types of information that may be logged at thecomputing device 1102 and/or indicated at the computing device 1106,other types of information are also described herein.

The computing device 1106 may have access to the same data source 1108from which the computing device 1102 may receive data that may bedisplayed in the user interface 1110. The data source 1108 may be aremote data source, such as an electronic exchange or a gateway, towhich the computing device 1106 may have a subscription for receivingthe same data. The data source 1108 may be a part of the network 1104 oran independent data source to which the computing device 1102 and thecomputing device 1106 have access. The user interface information thatis transmitted over the network 1104 may indicate the types of datadisplayed in the user interface 1110 from the data source 1108. Thetypes of data may be indicated explicitly or implicitly. For example,user interface information may indicate that the user interface 1110 isdisplaying current price data or other market data for an identifiedexchange in a certain window and the computing device 1106 may accessthe price data for the identified exchange for being represented in thesame window. In another example, the user interface information mayidentify a type of data implicitly by identifying the title of thewindow or other information in the display configuration that mayindicate the data source 1108 and/or the information displayed from thedata source 1108. As the computing device 1106 may know the displayconfiguration of the user interface 1110, the computing device 1106 maydetermine the types of data to display from the data source 1108 and/orthe location in which to display the data. For example, as the computingdevice 1106 may know the price data 1114 is displayed in the tradingwindow 1116 and the trading window 1116 title indicates the exchangefrom which the data is being displayed, the computing device 1106 mayobtain the price data 1114 from the exchange indicated in the title ofthe trading window 1116 and display such data in the identifiedlocation.

Using the user interface information received over the network 1104and/or the data received from the data source 1108, the computing device1106 may create a direct representation of the user interface 1110 atthe computing device 1102. The direct representation of the userinterface 1110 may be created without sending video information, in theform of encoded video pixels, over the network 1104. For example, eachparameter of user interface information may be indicated using asequence of bits (e.g., a ten-bit sequence or less). The windows in theuser interface 1110 may be indicated with a bit sequence that indicatesthe window location (e.g., coordinates for the top right corner) and abit sequence that indicates the size of the window (e.g., the height andwidth of the window). The user interface information may also include abit sequence that indicates the location of the data in the window. Thecomputing device 1106 may create a direct representation of the windowsin the user interface 1110 based on the display configuration indicatedin the bit sequences and the data received from the data source 1108.The computing device 1106 may create the direct representation of thewindows in the user interface 1110 based on the user interfaceinformation, as the computing device 1106 may have knowledge of theapplication being used to generate the user interface 1110 at thecomputing device 1102. For example, the computing device 1106 may havethe application parameters stored locally for creating a preconfiguredrepresentation of the user interface 1110. As the computing device 1106may access the shared data source 1108 and any changes to the displayconfiguration on the user interface 1110 via the user interfaceinformation, the computing device 1106 may create a directrepresentation of the user interface 1110, while transmitting lower datarates and using less bandwidth over the network 1104. This may allow foran increase in the speed at which information may be communicated overthe network 1104 and reduced latency for transmissions over the network1104.

FIG. 12 illustrates a method 1200 for creating and/or modifying apredefined display configuration. As shown in FIG. 12, user interfaceinformation may be received at a computing device, at 1210, from one ormore other computing devices. At 1220, a predefined displayconfiguration may be created or modified based on the received userinterface information. A predefined display configuration may be createdor modified by determining a number of application windows to display inthe predefined display configuration; a size of the application windowsto display in the predefined display configuration; a position in whichto display the application windows in the predefined displayconfiguration; a number of application functions to display in theapplication windows; a position in which to display the applicationfunctions in the application windows; a size of the applicationfunctions displayed in the application windows; a position, size, and/orfont type for text in the application windows, and/or the like. Apredefined display configuration may be modified by changing an existingpredefined display configuration according to changes made by one ormore users at a computing device. For example, when a group of usersthat use a predefined display configuration make the same changes to thepredefined display configuration, the predefined display configurationmay be modified to include the changes.

A predefined display configuration may be created or modified based onhow users may be using the user interface. The predefined displayconfiguration may include application windows and/or functions that aremore frequently used than others. For example, the application windowsthat are displayed more often by users in the user interface may bedetermined based on the user interface information and may be includedin the predefined display configuration. The functions that are usedmore often by users in the user interface may be determined based on theuser interface information and may be included in the predefined displayconfiguration. The number of application windows displayed in predefineddisplay configuration may be determined based on the user interfaceinformation and may be included in the predefined display configuration.For example, the average number of windows displayed by a group of usersmay be determined based on the user interface information and may beused to create or modify a predefined display configuration. The time atwhich application windows and/or functions are used may be determinedbased on the user interface information. The predefined displayconfiguration may include the application windows and/or functions thatare used earlier by a user of the application.

A predefined display configuration may be modified or created to changethe size and/or position of application windows and/or functions thatare used more frequently. For example, in a trading application, a sizeof a ‘BUY’ button may be increased if the user interface informationindicates that the ‘BUY’ button is used more frequently than otherbuttons, such as a ‘SELL’ button. A predefined display configuration maybe modified or created to decrease a size of application windows and/orfunctions, or omit application windows and/or functions, that are usedless frequently or that are not used. For example, the size of the‘SELL’ button may be decreased if the user interface informationindicates that the ‘SELL’ button is used less frequently than otherbuttons. The predefined display configuration may be changed based on atime period in which the application is being used. For example, the‘BUY’ button may be used more frequently than the ‘SELL’ button onMondays, so the size of the ‘BUY’ button may be greater than the size ofthe ‘SELL’ button on Mondays.

At 1230, the created or modified predefined display configuration may besent to computing devices that may be displaying the user interface. Thepredefined display configuration may be sent to a computing from whichthe user interface information was received at 1210, for example. Thepredefined display configuration may be sent as an application update,such as a batch update to one or more computing devices. The applicationupdate may modify the display configuration of the user interface of theapplication. The predefined display configuration may be sent inresponse to a request from an application on a computing device. Thepredefined display configuration may be sent in response to a runtimeerror or other problem identified with the application running at acomputing device. The identified problem may be a problem with thecurrent display configuration at the user's computing device.

A predefined display configuration may be a part of a profile or a userprofile. For example, a predefined display configuration may beimplemented upon selection of a profile name or identifier. The profilemay include a display configuration that may be specific to a user type.For example, each profile may include different display configurationsfor different traders or groups of traders.

Some of the described figures depict example block diagrams, systems,and/or flow diagrams representative of methods that may be used toimplement all or part of certain embodiments. One or more of thecomponents, elements, blocks, and/or functionality of the example blockdiagrams, systems, and/or flow diagrams may be implemented alone or incombination in hardware, firmware, discrete logic, as a set of computerreadable instructions stored on a tangible computer readable medium,and/or any combinations thereof, for example.

The example block diagrams, systems, and/or flow diagrams may beimplemented using any combination of application specific integratedcircuit(s) (ASIC(s)), programmable logic device(s) (PLD(s)), fieldprogrammable logic device(s) (FPLD(s)), discrete logic, hardware, and/orfirmware, for example. Also, some or all of the example methods may beimplemented manually or in combination with the foregoing techniques,for example.

The example block diagrams, systems, and/or flow diagrams may beperformed using one or more processors, controllers, and/or otherprocessing devices, for example. For example, the examples may beimplemented using coded instructions, for example, computer readableinstructions, stored on a tangible computer readable medium. A tangiblecomputer readable medium may include various types of volatile andnon-volatile storage media, including, for example, random access memory(RAM), read-only memory (ROM), programmable read-only memory (PROM),electrically programmable read-only memory (EPROM), electricallyerasable read-only memory (EEPROM), flash memory, a hard disk drive,optical media, magnetic tape, a file server, any other tangible datastorage device, or any combination thereof. The tangible computerreadable medium is non-transitory.

Further, although the example block diagrams, systems, and/or flowdiagrams are described above with reference to the figures, otherimplementations may be employed. For example, the order of execution ofthe components, elements, blocks, and/or functionality may be changedand/or some of the components, elements, blocks, and/or functionalitydescribed may be changed, eliminated, sub-divided, or combined.Additionally, any or all of the components, elements, blocks, and/orfunctionality may be performed sequentially and/or in parallel by, forexample, separate processing threads, processors, devices, discretelogic, and/or circuits.

While embodiments have been disclosed, various changes may be made andequivalents may be substituted. In addition, many modifications may bemade to adapt a particular situation or material. Therefore, it isintended that the disclosed technology not be limited to the particularembodiments disclosed, but will include all embodiments falling withinthe scope of the appended claims.

1. (canceled)
 2. A method including: receiving by a trading devicedisplay configuration information indicating a display configurationcorresponding to user-configurable trading windows displayed on a secondtrading device, wherein the display configuration information indicatesa remote data source indicating a first market data that is to bedisplayed in the trading windows, wherein the trading device is incommunication with the second trading device over a first connection,wherein the second trading device includes a trading applicationproviding a user interface on a second display, wherein the userinterface of the second trading device includes the user-configurabletrading windows defined by a user-configurable size and positionrelative to the second display, wherein the trading application runningon the second trading device processes the first market data receivedover a second connection to the remote data source to display the firstmarket data in the user interface of the second trading device;establishing by the trading device a third connection to the indicatedremote data source that stores the indicated first market data;receiving by the trading device over the third connection to the remotedata source a second market data, wherein the second market data is asecond instance of the first market data indicated in the displayconfiguration information; generating by the trading device a visualrepresentation of the trading windows, wherein the visual representationof the trading windows is generated based on the display configurationinformation and the second market data from the remote data source; anddisplaying by the trading device the generated visual representation ofthe trading windows, wherein the visual representation includes thedisplay configuration of the trading windows displayed on the secondcomputing device and the second market data from the remote data source.3. The method of claim 2, wherein the display configuration informationindicates a size of each of the trading windows displayed on the secondtrading device, wherein the visual representation includes windowobjects that correspond in size to the size of each of the tradingwindows.
 4. The method of claim 2, wherein the display configurationinformation indicates a position of each of the trading windowsdisplayed on the second trading device, wherein the visualrepresentation includes window objects that corresponds in position tothe position of each of the trading windows.
 5. The method of claim 2,wherein the second market data is received from the remote data sourcevia a data feed that is shared with the second trading device.
 6. Themethod of claim 5, wherein the data feed is provided via a gateway. 7.The method of claim 2, wherein the visual representation includes areal-time representation of trading application windows associated withthe trading application running on the second trading device.
 8. Themethod of claim 2, wherein the visual representation includes a windowobject, wherein the window object has a size that is proportional to asize of one of the trading windows, wherein the window object has aposition in the visual representation that corresponds to a position ofthe one of the trading windows.
 9. The method of claim 2, furtherincluding: receiving by the trading device user interaction informationthat indicates a user interaction with the user interface of the secondtrading device, wherein the user interaction information indicates aposition of one or more user selections associated with the userinterface of the second trading device over a period of time, whereinthe visual representation indicates the positions of the one or moreuser selections over the period of time.
 10. The method of claim 9,wherein the visual representation indicates a plurality of userselections within a predetermined distance from each other using asingle indicium.